Other people close to Le Pen told the BBC that she has herself claimed to have met the Russian President, and when asked about it, the FN MEP Jean-Luc Schaffhauser said: “This is a secret. There are little secrets, and this secret.”

Officially, however, Le Pen and the Kremlin both deny that the two ever met before her visit to Moscow last month.

Rumours about ties between the far-right French party and Russia circulating for years. They have intensified in recent months as the Kremlin is being accused of trying to interfere in the French presidential elections.

In 2014, FN received a €9 million (£7.7 million/$US10.6 million) loan from the First Czech Russian Bank, a small bank with ties to the Kremlin. A Russian hacking group published emails that appear to show that Le Pen’s party had received the loan as a payment for her pro-Russia stance during and after the Crimean annexation.

Many speculate that Le Pen was in Moscow to try to secure a new loan for her party, which is struggling financially. The party’s chief spokesperson, Wallerand de Saint-Just has denied those rumours. Le Pen was invited to Moscow by a Russian MP for meetings in the parliament.